THQ's seen a slight bump in its share price on Thursday due
to an unexpected windfall of 2 million dollars from the success of their Humble bundle program. The promotion allows the buyer to pay
whatever they want for a collection of 7 classic THQ titles including metro
2033 and Company of Heroes. The buyer
can choose how much of the purchase price goes to THQ and charities including
Childplay and the American

Red Cross with the minimum purchase at $1 . It's a nice influx of cash and the charity
tie-in is either brilliant marketing or a new low depending on your sensibilities. Know this, THQ has already defaulted on loan
payments to Wells Fargo and has till January 15th 2013 to settle up. THQ's share price was $1.45 a share on Friday's
close. If this promotion is successful
in pulling THQ out of its financial woes it could mean that THQ may become the bargain
bundler of the game industry.

There's a strong rumor, meaning more than just some
scribbling on a Chinese website, that the next generation Xbox is due out for
Christmas 2013. Apparently multiple
Bloomberg sources close to the next gen console's development say manufacturing
problems have pushed back the original September 2013 release date.

Splash Damage CEO Paul Wedgwood has created a new game
publishing house called Warchest to distribute Splash Damage titles. Their aim is to produce, "free digitally
distributed games with high production values for all leading platforms". They've
been successful with the strategy on the PC with the classic, "Enemy
Territory" and now seek to extend the philosophy across platforms.

The first hint of what's to come from the publisher is in the form of a
teaser trailer for the PC only game, "DirtyBomb" to be followed by "Rad Soldiers" for IOS devices in
June of 2013. "Connectedness"
is important to the new publisher so that you can continue your game experience
across any device regardless of platform.
Not a bad idea. It would be nice
to play a game on a PC, for example, and pick it up where you left off on an
IPAD.

A high profile Wii hacker has published specs on the WiiU on
his personal twitter account, @marcan42, claiming the CPU runs at 1.24 Ghz with the GPU
running at 550Mhz. Those numbers are
weak compared to the upcoming next generation Xbox and PS3. Of course this is a hacker we're talking
about but other sources seem to be backing him up. Last weekend PCPer's Ryan Shrout disassembled
his brand new WiiU topeekat its insides as well although the technical specifications weren't as
specific. If you're a Wii fan this
information is important to you.

Want to drive a pre-production C7 Corvette? If you own Gran Turismo 5 you got the car as
free DLC on Wednesday. Funny how the
front end looks like an Aston Martin...
Enjoy, PS3 racers! Sorry Xbox and
PC fans, none for you...

If you've managed to avoid the bloodletting that is an Xbox
Live Gold account, Microsoft is offering a free weekend to try out the upgraded
service. Much like the pusher giving
free samples to kiddies who then continue their habit by stealing mom's rent
money...

Well over 100,000 people have petitioned Grand Theft Auto 5
publisher Rockstar games to port the title to the PC. All I can say is, are you nuts? Since when is
a console port ever been a good thing on a PC?
Keep it on the consoles until Rockstar does a dedicated PC version kids.

The proverbial sky may be falling on PC enthusiasts. A
leaked processor roadmap shows that Intel plans to get rid of socketed CPU's in
favor of BGA or soldered on mainboard designs after Haswell's successor,
Broadwell launches in 2014. The rumor
showed up on a Chinese website and has gained support from motherboard
manufacturers since the leak surfaced last week. Consensus among the pundits ranged from
"No big deal" to "not gonna happen." Of course those who don't think it's a big
deal were reporting the news while reading copy from their MacBook Airs. AKA, consumers
not enthusiasts.

It's likely Intel
will consolidate its processor lineup and slate the low to middle range
processors on the BGA platform.
Mainstream CPU's usually end up in OEM designs anyway so it makes sense
to sell assemblies rather than individual components. The enthusiast market will continue and
likely pay whatever Intel wants to charge for the now "niche"
discrete CPU offerings on the high end.
With AMD no longer a force and Intel focusing on Broadwell for mobile
platforms, expect less choice in your future.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Are you the type that enjoys getting up to your elbows in
computer parts and the thought of buying a PC from Dell repulses you? Well then, there's a new rumor based on a
supposedly leaked Intel roadmap that shows Intel may be moving from socketed CPU's to permanently
soldered designs. If true that would spell the end of CPU upgrades and the end
of upgrade paths.

The move is said to be related to an attempt to reduce form
factors, a benefit for ultrabooks, as well as to lower the electrical
resistance of the CPU to motherboard connection thus reducing TDP on their
processors.

The next upcoming processor design from Intel is called Haswell
and it's due out in the latter half of 2013.
According to our supposed Intel roadmap, 3 of the 5 Haswell designs are
socketed with the remainder being soldered designs.

According to the leaked chart, after Haswell comes Broadwell
in 2014 and all those designs are soldered.
What's interesting to note is the question marks in the final column of
the chart. Reading the TDP (power dissipation)
numbers it's obvious that the designs that follow the Haswell enthusiast and
value CPU families are still up in the air.

The question marks probably say more about future Intel CPU
designs than anything else on the chart.

With the explosion of tablet and smartphone devices there's
an obvious trend toward more integrated SoC (System on a chip)
configurations. Since few of us will
ever see the inside of our mobile devices let alone upgrade the processors, the
roadmap seems viable. That doesn't necessarily mean that Intel is throwing out
the baby with the bathwater, however.

First, this is a rumor and the source is questionable. Second, To move the entire Intel lineup to a
soldered design would have a chilling effect on Intel partners and boutique
builders who could no longer differentiate their offerings from OEMs. With Apple signaling a move away from Intel
chips and AMD still in play, Intel can't afford to alienate its partners.

It's far more likely that the SoC designs are meant to lower
the cost for OEM's like Dell and Lenovo whose market segment is less concerned
about upgradability than price. Remember, OEM's make most of their money from
business customers who tend to turn over rather than upgrade equipment. An all in one design is cheaper to produce
and support for OEM's since they have fewer part SKU's to worry about. Standardization on a SoC design can also further
reduce warranty costs as OEM's are already used to replacing assemblies instead
of individual components.

Few power users or enthusiasts would entertain a
commoditized product like an OEM desktop to meet their needs, however. As such Intel is unlikely to limit their
choices any time soon. With AMD no
longer a force in the enthusiast market that also opens the door for Intel to
raise prices on the remaining enthusiast parts without consequence.

So is the desktop heading for the big sleep? The guys marketing tablets and smartphones
would like you to think so. It's
probably not wise to jump to conclusions based on a rumor, however. Unless ultrabooks and tablets can satisfy
power users and enthusiasts alike, the
demise of the desktop is as Mark Twain said, "premature".

Friday, November 23, 2012

Black Friday deals, EA want's DICE to expand its horizons
and WiiU has a "horrible" CPU.

Well it's that time of year again where it's completely
normal to find non-gamers spending all night camped out in front of a Best
Buy. Yes it's Black Friday and there's
deals to be had if you're willing to huddle with soccer moms and frazzled
fathers on the hunt for this year's "It" gift.

Joystiq has provided links to the best Black Friday deals on
gaming this year. Instead of rehashing
what they have I've posted a link in the blog and in the details section of the
video. Enjoy!

If you're looking for a Steam sale your wish has been
granted. Steam's Autumn sale is going on
now through November 26th and includes deals like Arma 2 for $14.99, Sleeping
Dogs for $24.99 and Borderlands 2 for $44.99.
Check the link for daily, flash and other deals.

Black Ops 2 hasn't even been out for 2 weeks and there's
already patches for all platforms. Mostly
game tweaks and multiplayer issues are being addressed. This is what happens when you rush a game for
the holidays.

Looks like EA wants its #1 development studio to mix it up a
bit. There's currently 3 to 5 new games
under development at DICE that have nothing to do with Battlefield. That's welcome news for two reasons.

First, Frostbite 2 is too good an engine to limit to just
Battlefield games. A little more variety
can push the engine farther and faster.
Second it might stop the annoying, endless tinkering and tweaking of
Battlefield 3

It seems the Wii U has a "horrible, slow CPU". At least according to THQ's development partner 4A on the possibility of an upcoming port of Metro: Last light to the platform. THQ needs to have Last Light ready on other platforms including XBOX, PS3 and PC before April due to "assurances made to investors" making a port to the Nintendo console less of priority in light of THQ's recent financial troubles. Apparently 4A is a "small studio" and would have issues dedicating another team to a port to the WiiU

Friday, November 16, 2012

Black Ops has dropped!
Well, Black Ops 2. If the gaming
press, High Budget commercials or worldwide midnight launch parties on the 13th
didn't already alert you then allow me to provide the service. Black ops 2 brings back Alex Mason and takes
you through the 70's and 80's and on to 2025 for futuristic call of Duty
action. I Suppose COD felt the need to
put their own twist on BF:2142 in the series.

Black Ops 2 is available now in the U.S. on Xbox, PC and
Playstation and for the WiiU November 18th.
It's the 30th in Europe and Japan December 20th. Of course the price is $59.99 like any other
so-called "A-list" title.

You probably heard the news.
Members of Seal Team Six got in
trouble for supposedly divulging "classified" tactics to EA
during the development of Medal of Honor: Warfighter. As bad as the game is it's hard to believe
anyone with any tactical training had anything to do with it. I'm hoping it's all just an administrative
foul up.

Seems THQ may not have to worry about the success of their
next 3 titles. The troubled developer's
assets are being eyed by Ubisoft. THQ has
already sold the rights to their UFC license to EA earlier this year to raise
some capital and last week's stock split didn't help much. Their stock price continues to hover around
the $1 range. The writing on the wall predicts
that THQ is going to be picked over by the buzzards instead of rising from its
own ashes.

Not really, Steve Ballmer actually showed him the door and
it had nothing to do with Windows 8 sales numbers...

Steven Sinofsky the man responsible for the new look of
Windows on PC's and tablets has left the building. When asked about the reasons for his
departure the standard breakup line of "It's me, not them" was
offered up.

"Some might
notice a bit of chatter speculating about this decision or timing. I can assure
you that none could be true as this was a personal and private choice that in
no way reflects any speculation or theories one might read — about me,
opportunity, the company or its leadership,"

That "speculation"
may have something to do with his reputation of being a divisive force within
Microsoft and generally not pleasant to work for if your viewpoint wasn't
completely in line with his. Inside
sources claim that Sinofsky's absolute rule of the Windows division pushed
aside the tradition of collaboration among other Microsoft groups causing
rifts. That would explain the lack of a
unified programming interface across the new Windows variants including phone
and RT.

So it appears that
you either loathed or loved the guy, with the former being more common.

Picking up the
reigns of Windows engineering is Julie Larson-Green who after joining Microsoft
in 1997 was responsible for the much loved (sarcasm there) ribbon interface in
office 2007. I passionately hate the
ribbon but others are equally passionate
in their praise of it. Let's hope her
future decisions are less polarizing.
One thing is for certain, she'll need to brush up her keynote skills
over what we saw in the Win 8 launch event.

What does this have
to do with gaming? 90% of games are played on a Windows platform. Even if you don't plan an upgrade soon, at
some point you'll have to deal with Sinofsky's legacy.

So why are they working with J.P. Morgan to figure out the
value of their assets. AMD hasn't been
doing as well in the mobile and desktop processor space as it's competition
over the last half decade. With limited
mobile products and lackluster processor offerings that long ago ceded the
market to Intel. The only bright spot is
their graphics division which is the only division that's remained profitable.

It's hard to understand how a company that pioneered the now
ubiquitous ideas of multiple CPU cores, and on CPU graphics could have fallen
on such hard times. AMD was largely
responsible for bringing 64 bit computing and workstation level performance to
the mainstream user. That kind of
innovation almost toppled the giant that is Intel who was caught resting on its
laurels with more power hungry and less efficient designs.

AMD's been through too many management changes in the years
since it lost the processor wars with Intel and decided to be the
"value" option. The trouble
with that strategy is that Intel has been able to crush AMD's engineered "value"
offerings by simply releasing gimped versions of their high end products into
the channel at competitive prices and competitive if not better performance.

Last year AMD officially ceded the performance and most of
the mainstream processor market to Intel.
In essence, they just gave up on performance and decided to try to
change the market instead. It was the
safer bet but in such a competitive space the safe doesn't translate to a dominant market
position.

AMD is looking at possibly selling off patents and IP
(Intellectual Property) to try to stay afloat.
Perhaps they need to go all in instead of treading water as they have
been doing. If AMD leaves the chip market
entirely expect prices and innovation to further stagnate. Worse, expect to pay whatever Intel and
Nvidia want to charge you for the parts in your next game rig.

Hey what a surprise! Somebody's going to make a movie based
on a popular videogame!

The next installment in our, "Hollywood is bereft of an
original idea" series is an upcoming movie based on Deus Ex: Human
Revolution. Hot on the heels of that news is the announcement
that it will have a director. His name
is Scott Derrickson whose credits include "Sinister" whatever that
was.

It's not really a surprise with so much crossover between
the gaming industry and Hollywood. It
would just be nice to see more movies like StarGate or WarGames that don't have
a game or comic book as their basis.

The real question is at what point will seeing a movie be
superfluous because everyone already played the game it's based on?

Friday, November 9, 2012

This week...Battlefield is Free and it's not that goofy
Flash game either, Game publishers make too much money for crappy games, THQ
delays 3 games in hopes of stopping their circle around the drain and more!

Free Battlefield!
1942 that is,

On Tuesday to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the
Battlefield series of games EA began offering the original Battlefield that
started them all for free on Origin. Battlefield 1942 will take 1.6 gigabytes of
space and includes the most recent updates.
A word of warning. The game is 10
years old and was originally designed
for Windows XP and a Pentium 3 CPU. Also
know that the game doesn't appear to support widescreen resolutions natively
but will run on Windows 7. Not a bad
deal for a free game and there are plenty of multiplayer servers
available. Enjoy a little nostalgia and
see where it all started.

Are you the type that just likes to watch? Well Origin might
just be able to satisfy your voyeuristic tendencies. EA has partnered with online game streamer
TWITCH to allow live viewing of your gaming from EA's Origin service. You can bet there's going to be a spike in
YouTube game videos from EA titles.
Guess the publisher better loosen up its copyright!

Diablo 3 has passed 10 million sales and an expansion is
coming. In related news
Activision/Blizzard says it made 100 million more than its third quarter
revenue forecast of 740 million coming in at 841 million. They also report that they have 3.4 billion
in cash and investments and no debt.
Unlike their customers who continue to get fleeced.

Halo 4 came out on Election day (November 6th) and so far
it's getting good reviews. The XBOX360
exclusive taken over by new developer 343 Industries appears to be carrying on
the tradition started by Bungie. $59.99
gets you back on board with Master Chief.

THQ publisher of the upcoming Company of Heroes 2 and Metro
:Last Light as well as South Park: The Stick of Truth has decided to delay
release of the titles till spring of 2013.
THQ is betting the farm on these releases and needs a hit if it wants to
stay in business. Jason Rubin, President
of THQ says the reason for the delay is,

"without extra time for polish in the current environment,
would lead to underperformance that could in turn lead to future additional
capital shortfalls".

THQ has had some serious financial issues lately that began
with a reverse stock split a few months ago.
THQ was forced into the move to avoid getting delisted on the NASDAQ for
falling below $1 a share in value. So
far THQ's financial woes continue and most recently have culminated in a 50% loss in
share value on November 6th. Hope it
works out for them but of the 3 titles Metro: Last Light is the only prospect
that has mass market appeal.

Oh yay, more SkyRim DLC from Bethesda. When is this game going to go away
already. Anyway the new
"DragonBorn" DLC is set for release on the XBOX360 on December
4th. PS3 and PC release dates are
unknown. Why don't they just start a
subscription model already. It takes
Bethesda years to make Elder Scrolls sequels so they might as well milk the
franchise like everyone else.

Fall has come to Caledonia and the lush green hills have
been replaced with golden landscapes.
Ok, for the uninitiated Caledonia is the setting for Lord of Ultima and
they've deployed seasonal textures to the maps.
Nice look and a break from all that green!

If you're a fan of Star Wars and MMO's you may want to
listen up. Bioware has announced that
Star Wars: The old Republic will go to a Free to Play model on November
15th. Not quite a giveaway, however, as
they're only unlocking 50 levels and will keep a paid subscription model in
place. Pay to play gets more options,
features and game content. If they
follow the Star Trek online model it would be a welcome addition to current
Free MMO's. If pay for play lets you mop
the floor with the free to play players it'll fail. The nice thing about a good F2P MMO like Star
Trek Online is that you can enjoy the game without having to buy upgrades just
to survive. In the end most people pony
up the cash, willingly. We'll see if EA
(Bioware's parent) can stifle their greed.

Getting a little tired of the scenery of Skyrim? Well Bethesda is working on a new MMO called
Elder Scrolls Online. It's due out in
2013 on both the PC and the Mac. This
explains why they didn't bother to do a co-op or multiplayer option in Skyrim. Just what we need another overpriced subscription
based MMO.

This may seem obvious but to older gamers there may be some
resistance to what I'm about to propose.
I know I was resistant to the idea at first. Should you find yourself frequenting a
particular podcast or forum and there's any chance of joining an online
multiplayer game with like minded fans, just do it. Older gamers may not be into the whole
"social" thing so spending time with strange people even online may
be uncomfortable. Get over it. Multiplayer gaming is exponentially more satisfying
when you're playing with people you share a common interest with outside of the
game. It's one of the reasons I enjoy
co-op games with my friends and why I don't pay much attention to online FPS
games unless I can play with someone I know.

That's it for this week and don't forget to check out the
links below. Click the "Show
More" below the video to see them...

Friday, November 2, 2012

This week: Curt Schilling's getting sued, EA admits that
Medal of Honor Warfighter sucks and Most Wanted is great, except for that
crashing in the cities thing...

Portal 2 for PS3 is getting some new DLC next week. "In Motion" is the new DLC is
coming out November 6th from Sixense and has 20 levels designed for the Playstation
Move controller. The DLC is priced at
$9.99 with a discount of 30% for Playstation Plus subscription holders.

Hey, want a free copy of Crysis? Then go get yourself hooked up with the Crysis 3 pre-order and EA will graciously let
you download the first Crysis for free.
Due out February of 2013, the pre-order will provide you with a code to
download the game. PC players can use
EA's Origin client, PS3 can use PSN and Xbox live for Xbox players.

This is your chance to take advantage of yet
another milked franchise in EA's dairy farm.

Former baseball great Curt Schilling's game development
studio, 38 Studios recently went under, that we knew. This week the Rhode Island Economic
Development Corporation has filed suit against the principals of the failed
company including Schilling seeking to get their $75 million investment
back. Their claim is that the company
was mismanaged and that the state's investment was" squandered."

The part they left
out was that nobody thought to do an assessment of the game developer before
loaning them the money. At the time the
38 Studios was working on Project Copernicus.

Liquidation of 38 Studio's assets have only netted the state
$830,000 so they've decided to go after the management. Good luck with that. It's called Bankruptcy protection for a
reason. Want to blame someone for losing
75 million? How about the state
officials that let the deal happen. Governor
Lincoln Chaffee stated,

"I know you work hard for your paychecks and for your tax
dollars to be squandered is unacceptable.
The board's legal action was taken to rectify a grave injustice put upon
the people of Rhode Island"

Really? Where was all
that concern when your state made the loan?
Sounds like straw man to me.

I love PS4 news. It
gives me a chance to say..."Orbis" and do the funny hand thing...

Apparently game studios have begun receiving new PS4
development kits based on AMD's A10 APU series which includes a built in
GPU. While impressive, the A10 APU's
integrated graphics can best Intel's integrated offerings but don't say much more
than that for the platform without a performance GPU. Although they are saying they'll support
1080P (not 4K) gaming which isn't exactly stressful for even midrange GPU's
these days unless you're playing Crysis.
Look for the announcement at next June's E3 conference.

Borderlands 2 has sold 5 million copies to date says 2K
parent Take 2. Guess there's no economic
downturn after all with $60 pre-orders and the $30 season pass that gets you
access to all the upcoming DLC. Oh yeah and Borderlands: Legends is out for
IOS now.

Poor EA, First they announce that their lackluster upcoming
release of Medal of Honor: Warfighter and canceled NBA game, NBA Live 13 would
cause a soft quarter then a day later blame the loss on disappointing
"packaged" (boxed) sales.

New CEO Blake Jorgensen may be learning the lesson his
predecessor didn't. Specifically that EA can't get away with premium prices for
substandard products. The official
numbers for quarter 2 show EA lost a net 381 million. They blame it on declining packaged sales but
state digital sales were up. A loss is a
loss EA, learn your lesson and don't push overpriced garbage on your customers.

At least EA can be proud of their 30 million Origin
subscribers. Although that isn't saying
much considering PC gamers with EA titles in their collection are stuck with it
if they want to play their games. It's
the same kind of worthless statistic as the number of driver's licenses
issued. Not like you have a choice if
you want to take that Prius out for a spin.

Ok, I can care less about Assassin's Creed 3 but some people
do. So I found it amusing that players
of the newly released game on the Xbox and PS3 (PC version coming in late
December) already had a patch waiting for them on launch day. Nice that Ubisoft is on top of the issues but
how did this get by the QA department?
There are a lot of fixes in that patch!
What, 3 years since the last major release wasn't enough time?

Been waiting to rekindle those warm fuzzies of rising
through the ranks of the criminal underworld by offing the competition and
murdering prostitutes? Well your wait is
almost over with the announcement of Grand theft Auto 5 releasing in the Spring
of 2013. Apparently this iteration will
be a sun and sand affair with bikini clad victims to match the decor. Pre-orders begin November 5th for PS3 and
Xbox 360.

Finally, it seems EA's new Need For Speed Most Wanted is a
great looking arcade racer with an open world layout that is both liberating
and annoying. Apparently there's been
reports of a number of game crashes when trying to speed through cities and
roads to nowhere due to flaws in the open world design. Might be worth a look when it goes on sale
and maybe a few patches. By the way I
mean sale as in discount not full retail.